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Posted: Saturday, 18 July 2009 10:35PM
Pastor offers reward for person who gunned down teens
Bob Roberts Reporting
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CHICAGO (WBBM) -- The activist pastor of St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church, Fr. Michael Pfleger, called on the Auburn- Gresham community to find and turn in the gunman who shot two teenagers on the sidewalk outside the parish community center Friday night.
Pfleger said he would offer a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction and dared the gunman to come forward.
"To anybody out here with a gun, who thinks you're so big and so bad, come see me, because we're not afraid of you," Pfleger said during a prayer service on the spot where the teens were shot Friday night. "We're not intimidated by your nonsense. It is unacceptable and you will not do it here again. You will not do it in this community because we will come for you."
Pfleger said even admitted gangbangers have expressed anger.
He said one gang member told him, "You don't touch St. Sabina. Everybody knows this is sacred ground in this community."
Pfleger said he counseled the gang member not to exact "street justice."
"He said, 'They better get him before I do,'" Pfleger said. "I told him, 'That's not the answer we want, because violence does not stop violence.'"
Pfleger said the shooting apparently stemmed from a verbal altercation that occurred during youth activities in the community center, on the 7800 block of South Racine Avenue, and said the gunman apparently walked home, grabbed a gun, returned in a car and opened fire.
He said one of the teens remains in serious but stable condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center, in Oak Lawn. He said the other teen who was wounded "is fine."
Pfleger said he will not allow the shooting to intimidate the St. Sabina community, and said its youth programs will continue, even if security must be stepped up. And to the legislature and Gov. Pat Quinn, he said it is evidence that the time has come to provide new funding for programs designed to deter inner-city violence, and to enact tighter gun control and registration laws.
Mayor Daley said that Pfleger and St. Sabina have been "in the forefront" of the battle to curb gun violence. He said the shooting is more proof that there are "too many guns in society" and that "parents need to take more responsibility."
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